


Nothing Risked, Nothing Gained

by Krasimer



Series: Khdo Doo Zrxqgv dqg Qhyhu Edfn Grzq [12]
Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: F/M, Family Issues, Family Secrets, Filbrick Pines Is A Jerk, Gen, Grade A asshole, It's Not Paranoia If They're Really Out To Get You, Ma Pines is the hero we need, Ma Pines was protecting her own twin sister, Paranoia, Pines Family Road Trip, Summer, Teenage Dipper Pines, Teenage Mabel Pines, coming to an understanding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-06
Updated: 2016-09-06
Packaged: 2018-08-13 09:39:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,378
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7972135
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Krasimer/pseuds/Krasimer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Okay, so where exactly are we going?"</p><p>Dipper pointed before he said anything, looking up from the map he had resting across his knees. "From here, we want to take a left turn. We're close, and once we get closer we can just follow the signs to the Mystery Shack. Soos and Melody built a guest house for Stan and Ford to stay in during the winter when their boat is harder to operate or summer when we're staying with them. It's not that far from the shack," he cleared his throat, the edges of his words cracking in a particularly harsh way. "We'll be able to go over and see them."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Nothing Risked, Nothing Gained

"Okay, so where exactly are we going?"

Dipper pointed before he said anything, looking up from the map he had resting across his knees. "From here, we want to take a left turn. We're close, and once we get closer we can just follow the signs to the Mystery Shack. Soos and Melody built a guest house for Stan and Ford to stay in during the winter when their boat is harder to operate or summer when we're staying with them. It's not that far from the shack," he cleared his throat, the edges of his words cracking in a particularly harsh way. "We'll be able to go over and see them."

"Oh, Dipper, do you think we'll be able to see the-" Mabel cut herself off by grinning widely, her hands pressed against her cheeks so hard it was a surprise she could still breathe. "Melody's baby pictures, the one from the appointment they were telling us about?"

"Probably, I mean, Soos did say we were going to be the kid's adopted uncle and aunt," Dipper nodded as he checked the map again, looked up in time to meet his dad's eyes in the mirror. "Soos was Grunkle Stan's handyman around the Mystery Shack and when he retired to travel with Great-Uncle Ford, he gave Soos the ownership of it. Soos saved our lives a lot, got in some trouble to keep us safe."

"He got turned into a zombie!" Mabel exclaimed, diving for her photo album. "Mom, mom, look, here he is trying to eat a chair!"

She passed her book into her mother's waiting hands for the millionth time, Meredith's smile reflecting her daughter's. "Well then," she muttered as she looked the photo over. "Honey, didn't you tell me about some well done zombie makeup from when you first looked at this?"

Thomas groaned. "Alright, I was being stupid, I know. You know. We all know," he looked back towards his children again. "And if you ever need to talk to someone about it again, I'll do my best to listen."

With a grin that was much more smug than before, Meredith reached over and patted his knee. "And I'll make sure he does."

"Oh, hey," Dipper spoke up again, looked out the window with traces of a smile on his face. "There's one of the signs for the Shack! Now we just have to follow this road for a few more miles and we'll get there. The Stans are expecting us at-" he looked at his watch, "- about three-thirty and it's one now. We're making really good time."

Meredith turned towards her son, reached back to adjust his hat out of his eyes. "Can one of you send a text to your gram? She and Shermie are still behind us, right?"

"I got it," Mabel offered, pulling out the phone she had painstakingly bedazzled the moment she'd received it. She pulled her feet onto her seat, pushing her back against the door as her fingers worked quickly. 

~

"Did I ever tell you about why I didn't leave your father?"

Shermie looked over to his mother, a small sigh escaping him as he tapped his fingers on the steering wheel. "I know it had something to do with my birth," he answered her after a long moment. "And I know...Well, I know some stuff."

"It was because I was scared," her voice was soft, her eyes intense and focused on him. "I could'a left the bastard, even with you on the way. Filbrick was no kind of good man at all, came from a family a' uptight jackasses-"

"Ma!"

"- it's the truth, sweetheart, ain't nothin' but the truth. He kicked yer brother outta the house because of an accident, a mistake. He spent ages resentin' Ford fer not sendin' all his money back home. He wanted," she scowled, her dark eyebrows drawn down into the expression. "He wanted Ford ta give up on what he loved so much and send all the money home so he could reinvest it. He kept the kid that got ta earn money an easier way, told Stanley ta never come back unless he made it big."

"I know, ma," Shermie smiled at her. "We've got them back now."

"Just let me say my peace, Shermie, I ain't got much time left on this Earth and I need ta say this before I go."

"Ma, your mom lived to be ninety-eight, I think we've got a little more time with you."

Grace Pines, mother of three, one of the toughest old women he'd ever seen, nodded slowly as a few tears fell down her face. "Y'know, Tallulah was s'pposed ta marry him."

"Wait," Shermie flicked on his turn signal, watched the car full of their family take a turn and followed them. "Aunt Tallulah?"

"Yeah," she sniffed, pressed a hand to her face. "Our families were workin' it out, my ma and da still believed in arranged marriages, but Tallulah...Being married ta Filbrick? It would'a killed her. She's like Stanley, all free-spirit, no room for being tied down forever. Ya let them grow, they do amazin' things, but no one wanted ta let her grow. Last time I saw her, talked ta her, she'd just found out that I switched our places."

"How come you were scared?"

"Because at the time I...Do ya ever think somethin' and then even when there's no chance a' it bein' true, ya still think it?" she sighed, shook her head. "I was afraid that if I left him, they'd find Tallulah and do somethin' ta her. The last time we talked, I was trying to explain that ta her, tried ta explain how I'd managed to show up to all of the 'Get Alongs' with him as our parents called them," she inspected her nail polish, a wistful smile on her face. "I always told her they'd been canceled, or rescheduled. Made up some boyfriend I didn't have. I thought she'd know, she always knew somehow. Like Stanley always knew somethin' was wrong with Stanford. Just knew, no explanation needed.

"I think she must have," she continued after a second of silence. "She'd always make this sort of...Fussy kind a' noise before she shook her head and laughed. The boys used to talk about things like that, Stanley knew Stanford was sick before he even coughed. Saved his life a couple of times," a moment of silence reigned once more. "Stanford saved Stanley's life like that too. Tallulah though," she cleared her throat, wiped away the tears once more. "Tallulah weren't the sort ta be tied down to a man."

"Wait, she was-"

"Always did have her eye on a girl down the street," Grace confirmed with a nod. "Filbrick would'a been a death sentence. I guess that's why she wasn't too bothered by the canceled meetings. I went instead a' her, kept her as far from him as possible."

"And when she found out, she yelled at you," Shermie adjusted on the road. "What about me, then?"

"When I planned on leavin' Filbrick, you were already there even if I didn't know it yet. I was scared they'd find her and make her marry him if I left him. Stupid fear," she nodded. "I know. I'd been thinkin' about it fer years, Shermie. When the boys were five, Tallulah came to visit them. Filbrick couldn't let it sit, always did have a temper. He started yellin' at her, accusin' her a' runnin' off. Well, Tallulah wasn't gonna let that sit either, started yellin' back, screamin' and hollerin' about him rejectin' her and going after me like a monster that he was. We had our partin' words that day, she vowed never to come see me again.

"Our ma and da thought, up until the day I married him, that Tallulah was the one gettin' married. I didn't invite her, never told her. I let her think that he'd hated her and had changed his mind about her. She'd told me she hated him, that he was a pig of a man and that no one should be stuck with him," she grinned. "I loved my sister, I didn't want her stuck with that. She was the older twin, afterall, and I guess she just..."

In her purse, her phone pinged, heralding the arrival of a text. "I guess she just was upset about me growing up, or about me bein' clung to like a leech clings to an arm."

She pulled out her phone, her long nails clattering over the screen as she typed a response to the text she'd received. "Mabel's askin' if we're still behind them," she informed him, cuffing a hand under her eyes. "I still see their car, tellin' her that."

Shermie looked at her for a moment, a small smile on his face. "Does anyone in this family know how to watch out for their twin without making a dramatic action about it?"

"Ha!" Grace just about choked as she laughed. "You wish."

~

The foliage around them grew thicker, more trees obscuring the sky from view as they traveled deeper into the woods. 

Thomas frowned as he continued to drive, his head half-turned towards Dipper. "Are you sure we're going the right way?" he asked, confusion obvious in his tone. "This seems further than we should be going."

"Oh," Dipper looked around before nodding. "Yeah, we're going the right way. Up ahead, we need to take a right. This is the way Gru- Grample? Stan took us when he first picked us up from the bus station. Shack should be just..." he trailed off as they took a turn, a familiar building appearing slowly from out of the trees. "There it is."

"There it is!" Mabel repeated, her voice reaching a higher pitch of excitement than her brother's. "Dipper, we're back!"

"Yeah," Dipper grinned, "We're back."

The two of them managed to wait, if only by a few seconds, until the car came to a stop before grabbing their backpacks and rushing out of the vehicle. Meredith laughed, reached over to put her husband's jaw back up before she grabbed her own bag and followed them. "Dipper, Mabel! Wait up you two, don't go wandering off alone out here!"

Mabel dragged her brother to a stop, turning to face her. "This is what we were telling you about," she took her scrapbooked memories, the evidence she had photographed for two summers already, back from her mother. Sticking out of her bag was a new book, empty pages ready and waiting for new memories. "Mom, this is Gravity Falls. We know this area really well, and I don't think we're really in any danger here."

"Sweetie, you told me about the creatures in the woods," Meredith brushed hair out of her daughter's face. "You told me about gnomes and unicorns and so many different things...I should have listened before. Your father tried to explain it away, but I knew the look in your eyes when he did."

"Which is why you need to listen to us right now," Mabel answered, nudging her head into her mom's hand. "This place is so much...Better. Piedmont is where I was born, where I grew up, it's where some of my friends are. Gravity Falls is _home._ "

"I wonder if Wendy's still in town this summer. She texted me something about..." Dipper dug his phone out of his pocket, running a finger fondly over the bedazzled pine tree in blue on the back. "Oh, here. Apparently she's gonna be back in a week, all her friends and her went on a road trip."

"Who is Wendy?" Thomas asked as he wandered over to them. 

Dipper looked up, tucking his phone away. "The girl who worked for Stan as a register clerk when we first visited. She still does the same for Soos, sometimes, but she's dealing with college and family business and adult stuff," he paused and looked to where his dad had parked the car. "Uh, dad, you need to move the car."

"...Why?"

When Mabel looked as well, her eyes went wide. "No, dad, move the car!"

Both of them grabbed his arms, dragging him back to the vehicle as fast as they could manage. "Okay, is someone going to tell me what's going on here, I mean- Oh my god."

A large hand crept out of the forest, ragged nails tracing over the hood of the car as if enjoying the feeling of the paint. 

"HEY!" Mabel yelled at it, rushing forward before her dad could stop her. She raised her own hand, smacking the tip of one of the fingers. "Don't. No. I mean it, do not!"

A groan shook the ground, the hand curling up into a loose fist as Mabel set her own on her hips, one foot tapping against the ground. "You know you have playtime later," she continued to scold. "We'll get you a rock or something, do not touch this car or I will be upset at you!"

Thomas stared, his eyes wide as he stood still. Dipper prodded his side, pushed him towards the driver's door and got him to pull out his keys, Mabel still keeping the creature's attention.

Slowly, he drove backward into a spot across the lot.

"You should be good now," Dipper tucked his hands into his vest pockets. "He doesn't reach that far in. Tourist season hasn't really started, so I guess Soos and Melody haven't put up the warning signs yet."

"His name's Steve," Mabel skipped over happily, her backpack on one shoulder. "We need to find him a boulder later."

Thomas nodded slowly, his eyes still wide and a little shellshocked. 

"We should probably get Grampa Shermie and Gram to park over here," Dipper frowned, heading for the entrance to the parking lot as he saw the car pull up the road. He waved it down, pointed towards the spot next to his dad's car.

"I'll help 'em!" Mabel laughed as she jogged over to meet the others before they could park.

Dipper looked at his dad, crossing his arms over his chest. "Think it's just really good photoshop?"

His dad turned to look at him, his eyes still wide.

**Author's Note:**

> There's only one or two more parts before this series is finished. Holy shit. 
> 
> Holy shit.
> 
> I hoped you enjoyed reading this far, I will have more up as soon as possible. I did, however, get employed and school starts again in a few weeks. I promise nothing, there's very little chance of a reliable update schedule. I am sorry for this.


End file.
